1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage material having bottle or container plate support tables or bottle or container carriers therein.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine. Upon filling, a closing station closes the filled bottles. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. Bottles may be labeled in a labeling station, the labeling station having a conveyer arrangement to receive bottles and to output bottles. The closing station and the labeling station may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement.
Bottle plates with a friction lining as the support surface for bottles or similar containers and optionally with a centering surface for the centering of the bottle or of the container on the bottle plate are used in bottle or container handling machines, and also in particular in labeling machines. Especially in labeling machines, the bottle plates are each fastened to a respective rotation device, which for its part is provided on a turntable or rotor that can be driven so that it rotates around a vertical machine axis and so that the bottles that are standing upright with their base on the respective bottle plate, when the turntable is rotated by means of the rotation device, the individual bottles are subjected to a controlled rotation around their vertical axis by means of the rotation device and the respective bottle plate, and specifically, among other things, for the transfer, the application and brushing-on of the respective label. To achieve a reliable rotation of the bottles and thus a correct labeling, especially at high throughputs of the labeling machine, it is necessary to replace worn friction linings that can no longer guarantee a correct co-rotation of the respective bottle.
If the bottle plates are provided on their top side with a centering surface that centers the bottles in the vicinity of their base, and if the centering surface is adapted to the shape and/or the diameter of the bottles in the vicinity of the base of the bottle, when the labeling machine is converted from one type of bottle to another type of bottle it is also necessary to replace the bottle carriers with said centering surfaces, which is just as time-consuming and expensive a process as the exchange or replacement of the friction linings.